SHO's Espinoza: Broner-Garcia is Biggest Non-PPV Fight of Summer

By Victor Salazar

New York- As of late, all has been going right for Stephen Espinoza, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Showtime Sports.

In 2017 - Showtime has consistently put on even fights, the ShoBox platform has delivered, and just this past week they officially announced what will likely be the biggest pay-per-view event of the year, when Floyd Mayweather Jr. will return to the sport in a boxing match against Conor McGregor.

Espinoza says the year has gone well because of the constant competitive fights that make other fighters want to be involved in big fights.

“It snowballs, once you do these 50-50 fights,” Espinoza told BoxingScene.com.

“We did Jack-Degale, then Santa Cruz-Frampton. Fighters start to take notice and they become competitive and it works in two ways. They say 'I don’t want to be the guy not taking the hard fights' and they also see the attention these fights are getting. They see 90,000 in the UK, and they want their big fight too.”

That concept has worked for two fighters that weren’t likely to face each other because of the disparity in weight. Espinoza was on hand at a downtown New York hotel to officially announce a junior welterweight fight between Adrien Broner (32-2, 24 KO’s) and Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KO’s).

Broner is a four division champion fighting at or near 147. Garcia is a three division champion that had his last fight at 135 pounds. The two will meet on July 29th inside Brooklyn’s Barclay Center and although no belt will be on the line, the fight has major magnitude for both as it is likely the biggest fight for both.

“That explains Broner-Garcia,” stated Espinoza. “It wasn’t a fight that was on the radar but both guys needed big fights in the summer and once it occurred to us to make the fight, it was easy because each guy said there's not a bigger fight out there.”

Espinoza believes it is the biggest non-pay-per-view fight of the summer.

“It’s not an exaggeration that it's the biggest fight for both and the biggest fight on premium network television this summer,” explained Espinoza.  “Both of them have had good solid fights and multiple world titles. In Mikey’s resume there's no Adrien Broner. For Adrien Broner, arguable this would be his best win if he wins. That's saying a whole lot.”